


Red Dwarf Star

by Stuck_in_Pylea



Series: From The Mixed Up Files of Dr. Ivy Mitchell [2]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Astronomy, Canon Bisexual Character, Children, Christmas Cookies, Drabble, F/F, Family, Fluff and Humor, Girls in STEM fields, Marriage, No Plot/Plotless, Planets, Same-Sex Marriage, Science, Slice of Life, Teenagers, bechloe living their happily ever after
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26898070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stuck_in_Pylea/pseuds/Stuck_in_Pylea
Summary: It’s three days before Christmas. Beca and Chloe’s teenage children plan the perfect day. Mainly told through the perspective of their daughter. Who we learn a great deal about.Very slice of life, and domestic. But fear not! Our favorite power couple join in later in the story.
Relationships: Chloe Beale & Beca Mitchell, Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell
Series: From The Mixed Up Files of Dr. Ivy Mitchell [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1998244
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	Red Dwarf Star

A redhead wakes up from a delightfully deep sleep to an annoying buzz from the alarm on her phone.

_9:00._

Just like she set it.

She rolls over on her back to stare at the posters hanging up on her wall like tapestries. It's her morning ritual, and this morning is especially perfect. The redhead feels the slight winter chill creeping inside.

It's three days before Christmas.

The first poster is a massive yellowish orange ball. Titan written in big blocky letters. The young woman's favorite celestial body.

The famous moon of Saturn.

Off to the bottom right were smaller groupings of boxes containing the first photos of the Dragonfly mission.

Closing her eyes the young girl lets her mind carry her across the solar system to this murky pasty yellow world with a gooey cheesecake ground, sandy dunes, columns of ice and gorgeous methane lakes. She imagines being the first human to set foot on a place in the solar system that wasn't Mars.

What a humbling experience it would truly be.

This yellow pudding world, yes it was a world in her eyes because moon feels way too reductive, is ripe for discovery.

A secret proto-earth she has all to herself.

A place she can walk around undisturbed.

A place she can sit on icy mountains lost in thought, staring out onto a beautiful landscape untarnished and unpolluted by people. Imagining a prosperous happy society where people get along, war is eliminated from everyone's mindset, death is no longer feared, awe of the unknown exists instead of worry, and the cherry on top: a fucking sic view of Saturn looming over the sky.

Opening her eyes the young woman smiles while she stretches. She hops a few hundred thousand miles over to Enceladus, the other icy moon of Saturn.

Her second favorite poster by the way.

The darling of NASA.

The peaceful chill from her room is what she imagines the tiniest, vaguest little taste of what it would feel like to ice skate on the powdery sheets of ice that coat the moon before finally taking a dip in the subsurface oceans. Gone was the fear of isolation, instead elation was present. Joy at the possibility of the miracle of life locked in place for all eternity.

She hoped to discover it. And the pretentious dickwads with their heads up their asses can go screw themselves should they tell her no, or try to curtail her ambition.

Satisfied the young girl slides out of bed. She takes one final look this time it's her most prized possession.

A black and white photo of a cluster of stars with a circle around small dot just slightly off center. A gas giant in the outer reaches of our solar system. Once a member until it was ejected by the gravitational forces of Jupiter and Saturn.

 _Planet Nine._ Or as it's now formally known as: Juno

She has mixed feelings about referring to it as Planet Nine. According to her moms, Pluto was the ninth planet when they were children, then it was reclassified. Their generation is still salty about it to this day. “You can't spend years pounding something into children's head then one day just yank the rug out from under them,” she recalls her mom saying.

At the bottom was an autograph signed by one of it's two discoverers.

_  
Dear Ivy,_

_Keep reaching for the stars. The sky's the limit._

_Literally._

_-Konstantin Batygin._

Oh yeah. It's pretty safe to say that at the young age of sixteen Ivy Mitchell knew what she wanted to dedicate her life to. She'd found her calling two years ago when her freshman class took a field trip to the science center. Ivy was hooked the moment the lights kicked out in the planetarium and her seat reclined back as the room was flooded with stars.

“Imagination is greater than knowledge, because knowledge is limited but imagination encircles the world,” the instructor concluded the event with a quote from Albert Einstein that resonated with Ivy so much that _of course_ she had to get a poster with the quote on it for her wall. Imagination led to all the great discoveries, and imagination will ferry Ivy to her destiny: astrophysics and planetary science.

Ivy smiles. Slipping into pajama bottoms the girl stumbles down the hallway until she reaches the bathroom. Lacing her fingers together she lets out a yawn while she lifts her arms above her head in a stretch

If Ivy Mitchell had a quarter for every time someone said she was the spitting image of her mom, Chloe, the sixteen year old would have enough money to afford tuition to her dream college Johns Hopkins, and still have enough left over to spoil herself rotten. It's true, Ivy looks a lot like her mom. Frequently the two are mistaken for sisters which Ivy would never admit out loud because...foolish teenage pride, but she likes being compared to her mom. Chloe is so inspirational and positive. The only difference between them being Ivy has bushier red hair, slightly broader shoulders, huskier voice, and a default lackadaisical attitude.

She inherited her personality from her other mom Beca.

Ivy spits the toothpaste out after a quick rinse then scurries down the hall back into her bedroom closet to put on a long sleeve flannel over her black cami.

Don't get her wrong she's more than happy to wake up to peaceful mornings like this but she doesn't plan on freezing her ass off.

Speaking of plans, Ivy's plan for today is pretty fucking lit.

Which is why she ends up outside her brother's bedroom door.

“Logan!” She knocks softly. “I'm coming in so if your jackin' off you better cover up!” Laughing she gives one more warning knock on the door before turning the doorknob ever so slightly. Covering her eyes with her hand she slowly pushes the door back a few centimeters at a time until it was wide open.

Knifing her fingers Ivy sneaks a quick peak through the cracks to make sure the coast is clear and that Logan's privacy isn't being invaded. She breathes a sigh of relief watching his chest rise and fall from the deep sleep.

Grabbing a pillow she _thwacks_ him on the head.

Logan jolts awake.

“Ives. What the hell?” He mumbles.

“Wake up shithead! We're baking cookies,” she says.

Logan rubs his eyes. “We? Not really feelin the two person job vibes sis. Or the love for that matter. Seriously is that anyway to treat your older brother?”

“Okay. _Please_ wake up shithead.”

“Nah. Feeling woozy from the assault, in fact I feel another sleep coming on.”

Ivy relaxes, but defeat is not an option. She's come too far. Journeyed far and wide-well okay that's an exaggeration because Jesus Christ she's only sixteen. However waking up this goddamn early when it's not a school day, with a mission feels like a strenuous journey. Only people from Planet Nine like her mom(read: Chloe) wake up with the sun.

Ivy furrows her eyebrows then leans closer to her brother, “No way bro. You and I are going to bake cookies while Moms are out shopping. They'll be gone another few hours so we got plenty of time. Plus I'll make it worth your while,” she teases the last part.

“Yeah I'm gonna need a little more information,” Logan yawns.

“Nope.” Ivy says with complete confidence. “It'll spoil the surprise. Now c'mon.”

* * *

The siblings follow all the traditional steps of cookie baking. They clear off the kitchen table, remove the tablecloth, replace it with an ancient relic their moms refer to as newspaper to set the cookies on when they finish.

Ivy and Logan agree four dozen cookies is enough, like fuck, _waaaayy_ more than enough.

Holidays are the time for sugary indulgences.

Their mom's tendency to _disappear_ the occasional treat is why the Mitchell children are not taking any chances. Beca's grubby fingers aren't putting a dent in their stash. The kids will play dirty this year if they have to and snitch on Beca to their other mom! It’s dirty pool, something mostly forbidden in the Mitchell household.

 _Mostly_.

On rare occasions an adult slips up. Chloe and Beca are only human. Logan and Ivy still remember the time their mom joined the two of them on the couch to play Mario Kart. Finding herself on the losing end of the final blue shell she was willing to endure, Beca came up with a low down dirty tactic. “Your mom and I are getting a divorce,” she sighed. The children recall their jaws dropping. Forgetting in an instant they were even playing. Beca remained silent before slipping up and letting out a loud cackle. “Suckers!” She shouted then crossed the finish line much to the horror and betrayal of her children. Beca spent the next few hours making it up to her children. It landed her in the doghouse with her wife, who after a while dropped the stern looks and admitted it was a _little_ funny. Chloe had no choice when Beca caught her giggling when she thought her wife wasn't looking.

Slyness definitely runs in this family.

Logan finds his sister crouching on her knees before the television in their spacious dimly lit living room fiddling with the DVR.

“So what's the surprise?”

Ivy beams at her brother with the most heartfelt smile he's ever seen. “Remember how we missed Shark Week this year because we had to go to Aunt Aubrey's wedding?”

Logan huffs. Yeah they weren't too thrilled about that. Especially since it was their aunt's second marriage. They went to her first many years ago, so it wasn't fair that they had to go to this one. Don't get them wrong they loved their aunt, but they aren't going to deny that she's difficult at times to say the least. Not their fault she's hard to live with.

“Welp due to us being children of the future-,”

“I'm hardly what you'd consider 'children',” Logan interrupts his sister. It was true though. He was twenty, going to Barden, and she was sixteen. But fuck you're never to old for Shark Week. Logan regret cutting her off now that he's had a second to think.

Ivy scowls(she really takes after her mother) “as I was saying before someone rudely interrupted, i used DVR share to borrow eight whole hours.”

“How'd you manage that Ives?” He settles up next to her on their comfy couch.

“They're called boobs Logan.”

“On second thought forget I asked.”

Ivy cackles shamelessly. “Actually you can thank our cousin Bella. She got the hookup.”

“Thank you Bella!” He fist pumps.

The siblings are curled up under a blanket. Cookies bake in the oven. The smell of mint, chocolate, and butterscotch feel like heaven to their senses. The heat's on, but not too high. You want to experience a slight chill, otherwise it defeats the purpose of cozying up under a blanket.

* * *

“Do you think sharks exist under those oceans of your favorite planets?” Logan asks his sister twenty minutes into _Titanic Jaws._

“Doubt it.” Ivy eagerly pauses the stream. Logan watches his sister smile. Ivy was there on the couch with him but the look in her eyes paints a different picture. The workings of the solar system are playing out right before her eyes. The teen was gone. No longer chilling in their peaceful suburban Atlanta home; instead vibrating into the cosmos from a high she only ever gets when discussing her passion.

“See. Multi-cellular life takes billions of years to form. Where earth has a molten core which was a fragment from the early days of the solar system, when the sun heated a bunch of rocks, most of the ocean moons lack an atmosphere so they can't trap heat from the sun.”

Ivy paused making sure her brother understood. When Logan nodded she continued; the light in her eyes glowing like their mother every time she found the perfect jam, when everything fell into place and Beca maneuvered the soundboard like Michelangelo.

“Now some of these moons like Europa, Enceladus, and Titan, their subsurface oceans are heated by tidal friction. That's where the gravity from the moons plays tug-a-war with the gravity of their parent planet,” Ivy squeezes her fists and does a push and pull motion to demonstrate. “This causes friction which heats the core, which in turn bubbles it's way up to the surface and creates a hydrothermal vent. You with me so far?”

Logan nods. Blown away at how smart his little sister is.

“So that creates heat which inevitably speeds up the process of life. Bitch is that at the most it can create multicellular organisms. But because the heat is limited to the ocean floor, and because there's no sunlight. Photosynthesis can't take place, which means no fish cause there's nothing for them to eat or evolve from. No fish no sharks.”

Logan gives his sister a proud smile. “Pretty smart sis. I'm proud of you.”

“I'm yoked out of my fucking mind about this stuff Bro! You have no idea. Like last night I crammed in two Ted Talks from Dr Zibi Turtle and Melissa Trainer, then dozed listening to a bomb ass presentation by the late Chris Mckay.”

Ivy couldn't lean any further into her brother without invading his personal bubble. The sixteen year old was sitting crisscross with her legs folded. Knees bouncing despite the fact her and Logan were covered under a blanket. Seemingly forgetting the television was even there because her brother, more importantly her brother's question was her sole focus. But her moms didn't raise a brat, Ivy was disarming in the eye contact she gave.

Logan pulled his sister into a quick side hug, then grabbed the remote and resumed the show. Not even paying attention.

The three day wait until Christmas cannot come fast enough. Logan imagines his sister opening her "big" present.

He used his mom and Uncle Jesse's Hollywood connections to track down Dr. Mike Brown, co-discoverer of Juno(Planet Nine) to sign her photo that Dr. Batygin autographed. Little does Ivy know the one in her room is a photo copy that Logan switched out the other day. A low down dirty move under any other circumstance, sneaking into his sister's room to take one of her belongings. Logan and his moms, who's blessing he of course had, rationalized it with the whole "end justifies the means" argument.

Ivy is going to scream and geek out, and probably do that annoying thing where she covers him in kisses. Of course he'll power through that because watching Ivy radiate happiness makes it worthwhile. His little sister wants to be a scientist so Logan and his moms are going to do everything in their power to support her.

* * *

The intoxicating aroma of freshly baked cookies greet Beca and Chloe when they return home. Usually their children being scarce bum the couple out. It reminds them just how much time truly flies. Chloe can recall a time where their babies stopped whatever activity to come running up and hug her or Beca.

Times like this, however work to their advantage. Cats in The Cradle thoughts are going on the back burner. This is war and the mothers have presents to hide...and cookies to swipe.

Life has its little bonuses.

Under the cover of the sound from the living room footsteps are masked. Two children none the wiser. While Beca, fresh from her recent tour of present hiding duty creeps up behind the couch where Ivy and her brother are glued( literally they aren't even blinking) to the sensationalist rag _Dino-Shark: Fact or Fiction._

“Bah Duh. Bah Duh. Bah Duh!” Beca squeezes each of her children's shoulders, shaking them.

Logan tenses up, “what the hell, Mom!” He clasps his chest.

“Fuck! Don't do that!” Ivy fumbles her smartphone remote(it's synced) trying unsuccessfully to catch it. The clang as it collided with the floor doing nothing to ease their jitters.

“Ivy Hope and Logan Arthur watch your language!” Chloe appears in the living room munching on a butterscotch chocolate chip cookie. Giving the cookie in her other hand to her wife.

“Thanks Babe!” Beca grabs the cookie then kisses her wife on the lips.

“Save some for us you know. We really slaved over those.” Logan says.

“Mom tax,” Chloe shrugs innocently all while taking another bite.

“This isn't Halloween!” Ivy protests upon picking her phone up off of the floor.

Beca smirks. “Sorry kiddos. Don't make the rules. I just follow the boss.” Beca smiles at her wife.

“Ugh! I'm finding a foster family.” Ivy deadpans.

“Want me to help you pack your shit?” Beca snarks.

“How come you two can swear but we can't?” Her daughter asks. Slightly frustrated.

“Sweetie don't make us pull out the classic 'because we're your moms and we're also adults' card.’” Chloe teases.

“Seriously I'll join a gang and get pregnant!” Ivy quips back to the amusement of her brother who's not even bothering to stifle his laughter.

“Mmm a grandchild. Yay! We can finally be a musical family that performs together. Ooh like Hansen!”

Beca playfully swats her wife. “Gross babe. Aim higher.”

“You're right,” Chloe agrees. “The Jonas Brothers. No! The Jacksons,” the redhead happily amends.

“Okay boomer.”

Beca sighs, feigning disappointment. “Seriously? No son of mine is gonna dish out insults that went out of style when me and your mom were kids.”

Chloe and Beca's children huff out in defeat, settling back to their comfortable position on the couch.

“Aside from baking, what have my babies been up to today?” Chloe leans over the back of the leather sofa hugging each of her children, dropping a kiss on each of their heads. Beca follows suit. The mothers park it on the cushions at the opposite ends of the sofa.

“Ives woke me up with a pillow to the face then forced me to help her bake cookies.” Logan says.

Ivy rolls her eyes. “Like I really had to twist your arm.”

Logan continues, “but then she told me Bella hooked her up with eight hours of shark week for us to watch, which by the way thank you sis.”

“No problem bro!” They fist bump.

“All in all I gotta say it's been a perfect morning.” Ivy holds up her smartphone. Logan leans into her and smiles for the selfie. From Chloe's end she watches her daughter upload the cute little photo of them curled up under a blanket snug as a bug, slightly red faced from the cold; onto social media. Chloe feels the tears prickle at the corners of her eyes. She looks over at her wife.

Beca's equally effected. As parents they feel that swell of pride at just how good of a job they've done. Their children really are each other’s best friend.

* * *

Beca returns with a longer blanket. Chloe with a plate of cookies and napkins, having pulled the final tray out of the oven to place on the newspaper, scooped the older cookies into the jar making sure to throw a few slices of bread on top of the cookies; a ritual her children cannot wrap their heads around. Together they join their kids on the couch.

“So...Dino-Shark huh?” Beca asks while her and Chloe settle in. Beca sits next to Ivy while Chloe opts to sit next to Logan.

“Oh yeah. But that's only the beginning. Four more hours of ocean's most ballin predators. I can't think of a better way to round out the perfect day.”

Ivy's practically bouncing in her seat when she nods in agreement with her older brother. Grabbing a couple cookies and passing the plate down in the process.

Beca leans back into the couch, smiling while she shakes her head.

God her kids are such nerds.

The smile went away. Beca immediately scolds herself.

_Fuck._

Chloe and her made a concentrated, earnest effort to avoid using that word or its derivatives ever since their daughter came home two years ago energized with purpose. After Ivy blew through the books Chloe and Beca bought at her insistence: _A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, Cosmos by Carl Sagan;_ it became clear to the two women their daughter was bitten by a bug. She'd discovered her passion at fourteen.

Around the same age Beca began exploring music.

Something most adults in her life dismissed as a side hobby. Something she'd grow out of when she "got a taste of the real world."

So why on earth would Beca, even in her late forties and partially set in her ways, ever want her children to feel the same disconnection, the same incredulity about their passions?

No. Chloe and Beca vowed to nurture their kids passions. Their daughter wants to be a scientist. To study astrophysics or planets, or something along those lines? Like she's even got her heart set on going to Johns Hopkins. Their son is still figuring things out at Barden; but the mothers owe it to their children to, even though they may never understand the jargon or subject, not use words like nerd, loser, weirdo.

Words they threw around quite liberally in their youth.

Chloe and Beca knew all to well what it truly felt like to be ostracized, to feel beaten down by life.

It's a promise to be better.

Ivy shoots Chloe a pointed look, promptly bringing Beca back into the moment. “Okay tell me your reasoning behind putting bread slices in with the cookies?”

Chloe chuckles. “Keeps em soft babe.”

The four smile. Leaning back into the sofa they spend the next four hours drinking milk with their cookies, laughing, gasping, making once in a lifetime memories.

**Author's Note:**

> *I hope I got the tenses right. I tried to only use past tense when describing things that happened in the past. So please...I implore you to give me your honest feedback.
> 
> *Due to reception from my last story I worked even harder on perspective and dialogue. So please let me know if I've improved.
> 
> *All the scientists I mentioned by name are real: Dr. Zibi Turtle, Melissa Trainer, Chris Mckay, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin. Brown and Batygin's Planet Nine hypothesis is cool shit. I'm definitely convinced they're onto something.
> 
> *Dragonfly is an actual mission scheduled to arrive on and study Titan in 2034. Since this story is set in 2040 I figured the photos will have come out by then; not to mention Batygin and Brown will have likely discovered Planet 9 by then.
> 
> *In case you're wondering; Beca gave birth to Logan, and Chloe gave birth to Ivy. I wanted to post my story about the birth of Logan but i haven't heard back from my beta yet. I have a couple WIP with little Logan that I will publish eventually.
> 
> *Lastly I decided to make Ivy want to pursue Astronomy/Planetary Science because its my current passion/obsession along with Bechloe lol. Plus we need more women in STEM fields. And I thought how interesting would it be to make this character, the last person you’d ever expect, to be scientifically inclined?


End file.
